Canadian death metallers Kataklysm has been around for over
20 years and are still going strong. Eleven albums under their belts with tons
of touring in between with no plans on stopping. Guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais discusses the tour, history, and future plans.
1. Do you ever see the original line-up to get back together
ever?
Jean: To be quite frankly I don't see it happening. It
was great for what it was back in the day. Espically our old singer we liked
him for who he was but I don't see myself or the other members to play music
with him ever. There's no hard feelings, I think who Kataklysm is for today is
who we are, myself, and the other guys, I think this is who we are and how we're
going to die. Money talks and promoters for festivals or record labels ask for
certain people or groups to get back together for one day or a few days, but for
me and the rest of the guys, it's not about the money , but I don't see it to
happen.
2. Would you mind telling me where the band got its name and
what the meaning is behind it?
Jean: Our old
singer he got the name but wanted to call it by its Latin name kataklusmos which
means in Latin a great devastation or an event that changes the world. We thought
it sounded funny so we changed the name to English and switched the
"C" to a "K". The English word is spelled with a C but we
wanted to keep the Latin letter of K because it looked like Kreator and thought
it looked cool back then.
3. You got new drummer Oli Beaudoin, how do you go about
finding a new member that you know, clicks with the band and meshes well with
your music?
Jean: So far so good. We had a great time writing the
record with him and touring with him, musically we fit really well together. But
personally he's getting part of the family slowly. It always takes longer to
get someone with the band, the other members have been with us for so long that
it's harder to get someone into that inner circle. He's doing a good job and
it's working really well at the moment, we met him at a show we had to cancel
because Max couldn't play so Oli played the 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise a few
years ago with us, and he's worked with other bands, so we knew he would be the
one for the job, he's learned the songs really fast, he was also a fan of Kataklysm,
so he knew the songs already, the chemistry was just so natural so when Max
needed to take time off we knew he would be the one to call when he decided to
do it with us.
4. You're on your eleventh album to date, what can you tell
me about this album that hasn't been said about it already?
Jean: It's a long time when we started 20 years ago.
Probably before the internet was really popular before, it was a different time
back then. We went through years of different technology and music and still
can't believe it. When we first started they told us we wouldn't last 5 years
with the way music and bands go, the way the industry is and we're still here
doing better than ever. I don't how to call it if it was faith or us just being
stubborn and stupid, I think we're all happy to be around in this crazy music
world. I think being part of this music scene is fun and a ton of great
musicians and people out there, meeting them all over the world, to be here in
this day and age.
5. Did you get the album you wanted? Is everything on there
or were there some things that were just impossible to pull off?
Jean: It's never 100% the way you want it. Art is never
really finished it's just released. It has to come to a point of just releasing
it otherwise you go insane or you miss deadlines or make choices on finishing stuff.
That said, I think everybody gave 200% in the song writing and everyone worked
really hard. I have to give it to the vocals sometimes you work 6-8 hours a day
and you don't get much done, you have to keep that will alive to do this. I am
happy about it and it sounds the way we want to do it and it's at its best and
it's a mix of our roots and us as 2014 and I'm very proud of it.
6. You will be heading out on your own headlining tour, with
no days off why did you want to go full force with this run?
Jean: When you're out on the road throws you off, because you get into a zone where you get
comfortable having a pattern everyday that you do, when you get the day off it
throws everything off balance. I prefer to do it in one shot, with this run we
decided to split it in half instead of the one shot we usually do. We're going
to do the other parts of the U.S. on the next run in the fall. We wanted to do
it this way in one straight shot no days off. When you play for 3-4 weeks in a
row you have the energy but when you play 2 months straight you get tired. I
think the fans and people coming to the shows deserve their money's worth and
if you're tired and not giving it your all so I think doing it this way was the
best way to do it.
7. Why did you want this touring cycle to just have you and
Aborted only as opposed to the usual amount of acts taking part in a tour?
Jean: We always try to do new things and I think the way
we wanted to do this was to find a way to keep the ticket prices as cheap as we
could. We wanted to give the local talent a chance to play with us and we are
always getting bands asking us if they can play, there's never enough spots on
the bill. We don't want to play after 10 bands late at night. We want to keep
it at 5 or 6 bands max or if it's just us and Aborted we could have only 3 or 4
bands play. So the promoters for every city was happy with it, they can get
their best bands to play the shows, now it's only us and Aborted but the costs
are low and at the same time all the local talents get promoted that was the
idea. It's a trail run and if it works we will do it again and if it doesn't do
great we will do it another way and we're always trying new things.
Jean: We're stoked about the new album and want to play
as much as the new stuff as we can. We also have a ton of classic songs and I
know our fans want to hear. We're always trying to switch the setlist around
for all the tours and the fans who come back hearing the same stuff, so it will
be a mix of both. I think there's a lot of the new and the old stuff on this set
list to please the people.
9. You guys have yet to release a live CD/DVD combo, when
can we expect to see something like that from you guys?
Jean: We released a documentary a few years ago so it's
like a DVD of the band's career if the fans want to see the whole story. You
see how we choose to do things the way we did, it's 5 hours long so mostly
people watch it in parts it's interesting and if you want to check it out it's
called "The Iron Will". We did some live stuff in the past and
released a live DVD filmed in Germany "Live in Deutschland – The
Devastation Begins" that the fans can also check out.
10. While out on the road and doing tours and shows with
other acts, how does the road trip work, do you all follow each other on the
road in a long train or does everyone go their own way and meet up at their destinations
and break stops?
Jean: It depends on the tour we always try to get a tour
bus for ourselves because we feel that we have a choice of how you spend your
money and how you travel, you can get a van and a driver and spend time in a
hotel room every night. Or you can take that budget put it into the tour bus
but don't get hotel rooms every night, you get a bed that rolls as you travel while
you sleep. You feel fresh each and every day and I think it's smarter to invest
your money, so this tour we get the front and Aborted get's the back with the
bed's in the middle. We have shared buses with them before so we decided to do
it this way. Some bands prefer the vans and I understand that, I can see you
want the control and not be stuck with a schedule I think I prefer the bus and
we're getting old and it's nice to have our sleep and it's a smarter option for
us.
11. Would you guys ever consider releasing any of your
material acoustically? IF you guys did go the acoustic route and do a show all
acoustic do you think the fans would go?
Jean: I am an artist and experimenting and I think some
of our material would translate well acoustically with some of the songs. But I
don't see us doing that live or doing a type of thing like that. We're a metal
band and it's how we started and how we will die. If we decide to do anything
acoustic or orchestral type of direction it will be a different project it
would not be called Kataklysm it's not going to be our songs. We worked a long
time to find the sound and style we play and will continue pushing with every
future album.
12. Anything else you'd like to say or want to add?
Jean: Just a big thank you and thanks for the interview
and support. For anyone who wants to check us out we will be out on the road
for the next few weeks and if you can't see us you will see us in the fall,
check out the new album wherever metal is sold and cheers everybody!
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